VH-UZP Lockheed 10B Electra
(c/n 1109)
This Electra was imported by Ansett in
September of 1937. It was named "Ansalanta" -UZP
had many forced landing mishaps
during its career, but none so severe as the one on 16 May
1946
when it flew into the ground in heavy rain near Virginia, South
Australia, while on an instru-
ment approach to
Adelaide's Parafield airport Fortunately there were only
minor injuries to
the twelve souls on
board, even though the aircraft wound up on its back with the engines
ripped
off. Incredibly they all got up, brushed themselves off, and
walked away from the wreck, one
passenger stopping to dowse the beginnings of a fire with mud from the
paddock! Dinkum, so
they tell me. The fuselage wound up as a pigeon loft for many
years. The faded color shot
below is from the CAHS collection,
whilst photo # 3 shows the aftermath of
the above mentioned
crash and was taken by the DCA accident
investigator K. Burr. At the foot of the page is a photo
from the Lindsay Wise collection (via the CAHS) of the control panel of
VH-UZP.
